Electricity needs when the grids down.

[bigpaul]

when past civilisations collapsed the technology was so simple that the survivors could access their daily needs by their own physical labours and just just sit back and wait for society to reassert itself no matter how long this took, sometimes centuries, modern civilisations notably western ones cannot do this anymore, we have built a world wide supply system that is so fragile to disruption that it will collapse easily. many people cannot live without their technology and modern services and utilities.
once this civilisation collapses and make no bones about it it WILL collapse its more a matter of when, and for that one should look no further than daily events that are happening now.
when this happens the only ones that can survive will be the people that are self reliant, anyone who relies on the government or NGO for succour and support is going to be out of luck.